After last night's round of matches, I could say that both English teams in action did fine. Sir Alex Ferguson's side travelled to The San Siro to face old rival, Jose Mourinho (Internazionale) and the result was a goalless draw. Arsenal managed to edge another Italian club, Roma, 1-0 courtesy of Robin van Persie's goal. He was brought down in the penalty box and converted the penalty himself. In another match, Lyon was held by Barcelona (1-1) in Stade Gerland, France. Lyon opened the scoring through Juninho in the 7th minute and Barcelona equalised through ex-Gunner, Thierry Henry in the 67th minute. Also in action was Spanish side, Atletico Madrid. They took on Portuguese's Porto in the Vicente Calderon stadium, Spain. This match saw 4 goals being scored and the final result is a 2 all draw. Atletico first opened the scoring through Rodriguez in the 3rd minute before Porto's Lopez equalised. Just before the break, Atletico regained the lead as ex-Manchester United player, Diego Forlan scored. However, it was to be Lopez's night when he scored another equalizer, earning his side 2 valuable away goals, in the 72nd minute.
Tonight, another 4 matches will be taking place and it will feature another 2 English clubs. Liverpool will be travelling to Spain to face Real Madrid and without talisman Steven Gerrard, they will be looking to do what Arsenal did 2 seasons ago (beating Real Madrid at their homeground -no English team has ever done it except Arsenal). Another english side, Chelsea will be battling another Italian club, Juventus. It will be Chelsea's new manager, Guus Hiddink, first Champions League match for The Blues since taking charge and it will produce a mouth watering tie as Juventus manager, Claudio Raneiri, is no stranger when it comes to Chelsea (Ranieri is an ex-Chelsea manager). Another tie will see only German side left, Bayern Munich travelling to Portugal to face Sporting Lisbon. And last but not least is the match between Villarreal and Greek side, Panathinaikos.
In other news, Novak Djokovic displayed a lacklustre performance in the first round of the Dubai ATP Championship although he went on to defeat Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla 6-3 6-2.
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